People of faith, whatever the specific tradition, now confront a 21st-century global reality: Worship can get you killed, anywhere in the world.
Inclusion can get messy: gospel implications of a ‘Wider Welcome’ for United Methodists and the rest of us
Christian history is replete with the expulsion of persons from the church; times when sin, sex, orthodoxy and “special needs” all run together and somebody or some bodies had to go. Perhaps we should add an asterisk to “Everybody is Welcome” on our church signs.
An ‘apology’ is not ‘repentance’: responding to clergy sexual abuse and other crises in American Christianity
“Our sins have “found us out.” Wrongs swept under the ecclesiastical carpet or committed inside the church’s dark corners have gone public, requiring us to move beyond casual piety to encounter the pain, depth and gift of repentance.
Our culture needs Jesus followers with the wisdom to navigate between righteous anger and gospel tenderness
How can Christians navigate between righteous anger and gospel tenderness in a Church that often seems too divided, too weak and too panicked to respond to contemporary challenges?
Legislating ‘In God We Trust’: using the state to do the Church’s work
For many today, American Civil Religion remains inseparable from Christianity, evident in current efforts among some 30 state legislatures to mandate the posting of “In God We Trust” (IGWT) in multiple government-related contexts. Haven’t we learned anything from history about the folly of such endeavors?
Responding to immigrants as ‘refugees from Bethlehem’: on the road with the Holy Family(s)
Whatever else the Jesus Story may mean, it must involve our response to “every stranger” as if they were “refugees from Bethlehem,” holy families in our midst.
American racism, 1619-2019: exorcism of this demon is needed – now
I am forced to ask: what am I promoting as gospel right now that later generations will document, repudiate and apologize for? I can’t repent of the racism of my Baptist ancestors if I won’t repent of racism in myself and my own segment of American culture right now.
Cheap grace, shattered witness: clergy sexual abuse among Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches sounds another alarm for us all
Investigative reporting by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram exposed widespread sexual abuse among Independent Fundamentalist Baptist pastors. It should be another wake-up call to all religious communities across the theological and denominational spectrum.
50 years after his death, Thomas Merton’s words haunt us yet.
What draws us back to Merton 50 years after his death is his haunting ability to unite the transcendent and the worldly, the inner and outer life with wondrous prose, occasional poetry and enduring spiritual insight.